Description: A new account of the life and work of innovative, pseudonymous French poet, novelist, essayist, and film writer Blaise Cendrars.
In 1912 the young Frédéric-Louis Sauser arrived in France, carrying an experimental poem and a new identity. Blaise Cendrars was born. Over the next half-century, Cendrars wrote innovative poems, novels, essays, film scripts, and autobiographical prose. His groundbreaking books and collaborations with artists such as Sonia Delaunay and Fernand Léger remain astonishingly modern today. Cendrars's writings reflect his insatiable curiosity, his vast knowledge, which was largely self-taught, and his love of everyday life. In this new account, Eric Robertson examines Cendrars's work against a turbulent historical background and reassesses his contribution to twentieth-century literature. Robertson shows how Cendrars is as relevant today as ever and deserves a wider readership in the English-speaking world.Brief description: Eric Robertson is professor of modern French literary and visual culture at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published widely on the European avant-garde, and his books include Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor.
Review Quotes: "[A] wide- ranging and detailed study of Cendrars's life and work. . . . Deftly interweaving biography and analyses of Cendrars's oeuvre, Robertson has a clear goal: to explore the complex relationship between life and art. . . . Robertson's text is interspersed with illustrations and photographs, which vividly evoke both Cendrars's art and his life. . . . Incisive, imaginative, and sophisticated readings . . . characterize this fascinating study, which itself effortlessly glides between life, art, history, and criticism."-- "Modern Language Review"